UPI Poll: All but rich say tax the rich

Demonstrators march through the streets on May 1, 2012 in Chicago. UPI/Brian Kersey | License Photo

WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- Most U.S. voters say they believe the wealthy should be taxed more, results of a United Press International poll released Tuesday indicated.

Nearly half of likely voters -- 49 percent -- said they support President Obama's view that the wealthy should pay more taxes than they now do, results of the UPI-CVoter poll indicate.

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Thirty-eight percent of voters said they support Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's position that the wealthy should receive tax breaks to spur investment in businesses and create jobs, results said.

Voter support for higher tax rates for the rich -- who typically pay less than middle-class taxpayers based on percentages of incomes -- sweeps across gender, education, race and region, the poll said.

The only groups in which the majority said they favor tax breaks for the wealthy are Republicans, people who identify themselves are moderately or strongly conservative, and senior citizens over 55 years old.

While 71 percent of Republicans say they favor Romney's position of providing tax breaks to the wealthy, 21 percent said upper-income taxpayers should pay more taxes.

Results are based on nationwide telephone interviews from Sept. 17-23 with 908 adults, of which 748 were identified as likely voters. The margin of error is 3.5 percentage points for the total sample and 4.5 percentage points for likely voters.